Patchy habitats, division of labour and growth dividends in clonal plants

Natural habitats are patchy in quality. in clonal plants, resource-acquiring structures often occupy sites that differ in quality. Clonal plants can display division of labour in resource-acquisition duties, manifested as local specialization by ramets, which enhances acquisition of each resource from sites of greatest abundance. Physiological integration can re-distribute resources internally from sites of acquisition to clone parts sited where the same resources are scarce. Recent research is showing that such specialization and resource sharing is a highly efficient strategy for acquiring resources and that it can result in considerably greater growth when resources are heterogeneously distributed than when the same quantity of resources is distributed homogeneously.